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Position: Chaiman and CTO, co-founder Year Joined Firm: 2003 Education: BSEE from Gannon University in Erie, Pennsylvania; Master of Engineering degree in Electric Power Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute |
Erich W. Gunther is the Chairman, Chief Technology Officer, and co-founder of EnerNex® Corporation in Knoxville, Tennessee where he helps EnerNex clients define their strategic direction in basic R&D, technology, and product development. Gunther has years of experience in design and development of innovative solutions to a wide array of power system problems, most notably ways to take advantage of communications networks and technology to improve the efficiency, operating practices, and security of the electric power system. He is presently consulting with the California Energy Commission and Southern California Edison on matters related to the development of a widely deployed advanced metering and demand responsive infrastructure in California and is currently the chairman/facilitator for the UtilityAMI organization. Erich is also working with the Tennessee Valley Authority on developing security policy for their new PowerWAN SCADA network architecture. Erich is presently the lead consultant implementing IntelliGrid (a public-private partnership dedicated to bringing the U.S. energy system into the 21st century) demonstration projects, providing coordination between IntelliGrid and other organizations, and implementing general IntelliGrid technology transfer activities. Erich was appointed in 2004 to the DOE GridWise Architecture Council - a focused team of experts assembled to articulate the guiding principles that constitute the architecture of a future, intelligent, transactive, energy system. Erich played a key role in the development and implementation of the Power Quality Data Interchange Format (IEEE 1159.3) and the Utility Communication Architecture (now IEC 61850) and was a key team member for the EPRI IntelliGrid Architecture development project. He also served as principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Homeland Security Small Business Innovative Research Phase I project examining the use of securable communication standards and protocols to secure electric power SCADA systems against cyber attack. Prior to co-founding EnerNex Corporation, Erich was the Vice President of Technology and Information Systems Development at Electrotek Concepts. There he was responsible for the development of hardware, software and systems technologies for use in products, research, and engineering studies. He was responsible for the design and implementation of Electrotek’s corporate network communications systems as well as providing similar services for Electrotek clients. Erich has been involved in the application of various communication technologies in the utility industry, most notably for power monitoring applications. He deployed monitoring and communications systems at various wind farms as a part of research projects for the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) and the Energy Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and he developed the communications infrastructure used to implement a distributed generation dispatch and aggregation system for the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) and New York Independent System Operator (NYISO) emergency demand response program in New York City. He was the chief architect of the Dranetz-BMI Signature System, a web-based power monitoring platform that has been deployed by a number of utilities and other organizations to monitor power systems. He was also involved in applying this platform for condition based maintenance applications and distributed generation control and management applications. Erich was the principal investigator for a U.S. Department of Energy project to research ways to utilize the Internet in the electric power utility industry. This project ("A Practical and Cost Effective Demonstration of Efficient Energy Usage and Quality Management Using the National Information Infrastructure") developed the basic principles used in the industry today for web based electric power measurement information systems. He was also involved in the design and specification of the Dranetz-BMI 8010 PQNode, utilized as the data collection system for the EPRI Distribution Power Quality Project. He also designed the software that enabled the user to setup and obtain reports from the instrument. This data collection system consisted of over 200 PQNodes installed on the distribution systems of various utilities across the continental U.S. He is the author of a number of Electrotek software programs including the harmonic simulation program SuperHarm and TOP, The Output Processor. He ported the EPRI/DCG version of the Electromagnetic Transients Program (EMTP) to run under the OS/2, Windows and Windows NT operating systems. He designed and co-developed the System Manager software for Square D's Power Logic Circuit Monitor, BMI PASS software and authored several power systems analysis programs while at Cooper Power Systems. Erich designed, and lead the team that implemented the Electrotek Computing Infrastructure. He has provided similar services to clients in the electric power industry. Erich is also the author of a number of technical papers and other publications involving power quality, harmonic and transient analysis, and power system measurements. Erich is a member of the IEEE and is actively involved in various working groups including serving as the Chairman of the P1159.3 task force on power quality data interchange, Vice Chair of the Harmonics working group, and chairman of the interharmonic task force of the harmonics working group. Erich is the principal author and chapter chairman of the terms, definitions, and phenomena sections of the draft IEEE Guide to Monitoring Power Quality being produced by the P1159 working group. He is also a member of various international technical groups involved in power quality related activities including serving as the convener of the CIGRE C4.1.01/CIRED/UIE CCU2 joint working group on Voltage Quality. Erich is a member of the board of directors of the UCA International Usersgroup organization and has contributed significantly to developing the metering object models for UCA GOMSFE and IEC 61850-7-4. He is also a US representative to the IEC 61400-25 working group developing a wind industry communications standard. Prior to joining Electrotek, he was employed by the systems engineering group of McGraw-Edison (now Cooper Industries) in Canonsburg, Pennsylvania and as an engineer and news photographer at WICU-TV Channel 12, an NBC affiliate, in Erie, Pennsylvania. Recent Projects:
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